A Brough Family Vacation

In September my in-laws decided that they wanted to come visit for Christmas. December is not exactly the ideal month to make your first ever trip to Alaska. In fact I'm pretty sure it's the exact opposite of ideal, especially if you're coming from a warmer climate like Portland, Oregon. Never the less up my in-laws came. They arrived on December 26 were greeted by a balmy -10. No seriously it was balmy. After several weeks of -35 and colder in November anything above -15 now feels warm. Its weird I know but that's life in Alaska. While they were here they actually got to experience both -42 and how warm -20 feels afterward.

I had to chuckle a little when I saw my mother-in-law all bundled up at -15. We were total opposites; she was as covered as she could get and I'd forgotten to put on gloves because it felt warm. Too funny!

After a quick stop for dinner we headed home for Christmas Round 2. In addition to gifts from the grandparents we had also saved all our gifts for each other to open that evening. We had a great time sharing stories, opening gifts, and watching the kids playing with their new toys. I even took advantage of another camera in the house and got out from behind mine. Turns out I can be rather silly when allowed to appear in front of the camera, as you'll see later.

Jonathan absolutely knocked it out of the park with his choice of gift for his brother. After spending several hours shopping and agonizing over the options Jonathan very thoughtfully chose to get his brother a doctor kit.
As you can tell from the look on Jason's face he was absolutely THRILLED with his gift. He immediately opened the box, put everything in the dr. bag and got a stuffed animal to examine.
Apparently Cody, Jason's special bear, needed his ears checked. What can I say, you play what you know. Since October Jason has had 5 ear infections and ended up getting tubes a few days ago. But I digress.

Jonathan only asked for one thing for Christmas this year. He desperately wanted the Siddeley Lego set from Cars 2. You can only imagine his disappointment when it didn't show up on Christmas day at AG and Granddad's. He got a lot of cool stuff that he really liked but was bummed there was no big Lego set.
Needless to say he was pretty darn excited when it showed up under our Christmas tree. He had a great time building the set and has had even more fun flying Siddeley through our house.
See I told you I get a little silly when I get in front of the camera. I have no idea what is happening here but apparently it warranted a goofy smile.

Oh that's a nice one!

We had a great Christmas. Dan got me a board game I've wanted for a really long time. I gave Dan a CD he's wanted for a long time and a Star Wars shirt. My in-laws LOVED the photo book I put together of our trip to see them this past summer.

And once the kids were bedded the adults stayed up way too late playing board games, card games and Wii Bowling. It was a great day!